Continual Improvement

This Men’s Health article on fatigue in men mentions that men typically fail to take even 4 days of vacation per year. It seems hard to believe, regardless of the industry, but it does bring up an issue discussed quite often. The issue revolves around the idea that vacations are often more stressful than not taking vacations. The core concern doesn’t involve the stress of dragging the kids across the desert with a rabid dog or the back pain of sleeping on the in-law’s foldout couch.

The real apprehension around taking vacations often deals with (1) the amount of work piling up while gone, (2) missing important decision making process, and (3) not being able to defend against a work bully. To avoid these pains, people will give up unused vacation time and show up for meetings while on paid time off. Some might argue this shows real dedication, but as the article above proves, this is most likely creating a situation where the lack of a recharge will start to slowly take little bites from your mental health. (And hence, the weak piranha analogy is revealed.)

Some people deal with this by hooking up to the corporate email on vacation and just checking important emails while gone. (Absolute time boxing is essential.) This may seem counterintuitive, but for some, the decreased pressure can make the vacation more relaxing. I’ve seen others setup a designated substitute (possible a trusted peer or senior employee) while gone, who can make decisions and defend against a tear-down artist. This method has the added effect of building trust relationships with others in the group, which can ease the pressure during future vacations.

Another tactic for those having difficulty with time away from the office is to schedule vacation time when others are likely out of the office. While somewhat limiting to the family schedule, the chances important decisions are being made are lessened, and the amount of work piling up is often significantly decreased. Along the same lines of adopting one’s schedule, I’ve seen people take a series of 3-5 day vacations (ex. Fridays off for Nov and Dec), such that some time is spent in the office every week. Granted, short stints of time away may not completely clear one’s mind; it’s better than taking no time away or being tormented while sitting on the beach.

This short article in Men’s Health has an awesome list of five reminders in boosting self-confidence. Every person has areas where he/she may be lacking in confidence, and if left unattended, these feelings often develop into harmful insecurities that can hurt personal relationships or an entire career. In fact, I would venture to speculate that the vast majority of interrelationship troubles can be attributed to some sort of insecurity in one or more of the individuals involved. My favorite bullet point in this article is:

‘Self-image is the mental picture you have of yourself. It is not fixed, it is not objective, it can be changed and you can change it.’

Even as a firm believer in trying to find the objective part of any problem, I believe this cannot be said any better. It reminds me of something a friend recently told me about a recent blind dating encounter, where it was mentioned that the other person became magnitudes more attractive as they conversed. Granted, this story didn’t come with a visual reference point and may sound a bit superficial, but the point is proof in the power of changing one’s persona.

My second favorite bullet in this article deals with the issue of boredom in developing a lack of confidence. While I’m not a fan of busy work or delegating work for the sake of image, there is a good memento for managers hidden in this idea, because people with nothing to do or with mundane work will often become paranoid about their value to the organization and ultimately themselves.

As strange as it may seem, I was recently picked for the jury selection process and a subsequent jury for the first time in my short life. While many people feel like this is a major headache in their lives, I quite enjoyed watching the process and seeing how the legal system really works. Parking is a major pain, and unless you are familiar with this part of downtown, driving around in this area can be incredibly frustrating. On the other hand, getting people to serve must not be as big of an issue as it seems because the parking hassles contribute a significant amount to people’s general dispassion for jury duty. In any case, here are a couple of tips for those being selected to serve in Austin (for district court on 11th Street):

• Parking. For the selection process, each person is on their own to either pay for covered parking or run down to a meter every 2 hours to feed coins; however, once you are selected for a jury, you can park for free in the metered locations within a 2-3 block radius of the courthouse. Granted, this still assumes you can find an open space. The jury instructions recommended using the city’s bus system to help with this, but unless you are familiar with the public transit system, it can be more time consuming. If you want to avoid all the trouble and don’t mind paying, I recommend the Bank Tower parking at W 16th and Guadalupe. The 11th Street courthouse is just a few blocks walk down the street.
• Dress code. For jury selection, shorts and just about anything is allowed. Once selected for a jury though, no shorts or short skirts are allowed.
• Entertainment. Be ready to experience some very boring delays in the selection process and during the trial. I highly recommend taking a book or magazine to help fill some of the time.
• Trying to get deselected. I heard many people try to avoid serving on a jury for business reasons, and the judge denied 90% of those who tried, even self-employed persons. Having children over 10 years of age will mostly likely not get a person out of serving either. During the selection phase, it was obvious who was trying to get dismissed by answering the questions in manner to suggest an inability to be impartial; however, this is not recommended unless the reasons are factual.

In the end, the trial for which I served dealt with an attempted murder case, and we handed down a “not guilty” verdict due to a complete lack of evidence by the state. Here’s a picture of the jury room where we, the jurors, met and deliberated the case.